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Seeing Red at the Movies Presents:
​

A Sacred Rage:
The Angry Woman as the Transformative Feminine in Film and Cinema


​"But even where the transformative character of the Feminine appears as a negative, hostile, and provocative element, it compels tension, change, and an intensification of the personality."
-Eric Neumann, The Great Mother

Before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Elie Wiesel was asked why God would allow the Holocaust. He said, "I have not answered that question, but I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I've been closer to him for that reason."* In the face of profound injustice, anger and protest may be the most sacred response. This is a creative understanding of anger, not in the sense of fueling violence and aggression, but anger that keeps us human and humane. This is anger rooted in the soil of compassion, empathy, and hope. While there is a culturally accepted template for a masculine expression of rage and anger in order to effect change and transformation, the archetypal angry woman is more often than not transmogrified (Medusa) and exiled.

Yet there is an archetypal reality of the angry feminine as a catalyst for healthy transformation. This is an archetypal identity that is illustrated in the earliest known writings of civilization. We meet her as a Goddess in the figure of Inanna. She is the transformative feminine that Erich Neumann describes when he writes:

"But even where the transformative character of the Feminine appears as a negative, hostile, and provocative element, it compels tension, change, and an intensification of the personality. In this way, an extreme exertion of the ego is provoked and its capacity for creative transformation is directly and indirectly 'stimulated.'"

This is the Salome that Jung struggles to accept in the Red Book. When this transformative feminine appears, whether in our psyche or in culture, the initial reaction is usually to reject or exile her. She ushers in a sense of extreme danger that the psyche instinctively resists. She seems dangerous because she challenges the status quo of both our psychic and cultural orientation. Her appearance whether in our dreams, our creative processes or in the outer world, usually heralds the disruption, destruction and chaos that is the beginning of profound transformation. This transformative feminine is not the assassin that Jung accuses Salome of being, rather she is the guide for creative transformation that is a necessary part of the individuation process.

Contemporary cinema often shows us only one aspect of the archetypal angry woman. From the classic Evil Queen in Snow White, to Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest and Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, we are given a dark feminine bent on destruction and annihilation either literally or psychologically. These are characters caught in the blind rage of an archetypal possession. Most of them illustrate more a projection of an unconscious fear of the feminine, which manifests as the transmogrified feminine.

Yet, there is another facet of the archetypal angry feminine that illustrates a differentiated anger that fuels the creative energy and stamina needed to effect deep transformation. Films like Erin Brokevich, Silkwood and more recently, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, show us women who channel their rage and men who work alongside them, in order to protest and overthrow systems of injustice. The documentary, Pray to the Devil Back to Hell, featuring the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Leymah Gbowee shows us an incredible example of the power of this archetypal feminine anger to effect cultural transformation.

This Seeing Red series will explore the cultural portrayals we find in cinema relative to angry women and to illuminate the archetypal reality of the angry feminine not as a deranged villainess, but as one aspect of the transformative feminine that Neumann describes, who appears in our psyche and in culture, in order to move us forward in the sacred process of becoming whole. 


*Joseph Berger, “Man in the News: Witness to Evil; Eliezer Wiesel,” The New York Times, October 15, 1986.
Wednesday Evenings from 8:00 - 9:30 PM EST.

Each webinar session will feature a 60 minute presentation focused on an  archetypal analysis of the film, followed by 30 minutes of discussion with the Seeing Red Faculty presenter.  
All of the webinar presentations will be recorded so you can access them at your convenience.

​
Special Note:
You will need to have watched the movie before the webinar presentation.

You can purchase the entire series for just $69


Each of the webinars will be recorded, so you can watch them at your convenience.

Register easily over the phone:

 (860) 415-5004
or
Click the button below to register via e-mail with your card on file

 

YES! Please register me for this series!

Featured Films

November 7th, 2018
with
​Loralee Scott, MFA

Picture
Link to watch on Amazon Prime:

​https://www.amazon.com/Pray-Devil-Back-Leymah-Gbowee/dp/B01JK3I83S/ref=tmm_aiv_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

​"I seek to turn your steps into the best path instead of into this one of evil."

So speaks Lyssa, the Goddess of Fury, in Euripedes Greek tragedy, Herakles. Embedded in this myth is an intimation of an archetypal feminine rage that seeks to channel the energy of anger and fury into a generative outcome rather than towards the destruction and annihilation that so often follows in its path. This myth is startling in its illumination of the unconscious roots of rage and gendered violence that we see enacted in our newsfeeds and headlines today. We will work with this myth as well as with the incredible story of the mothers and grandmothers in the documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, who channeled their rage into a courage that triumphed over unimaginable terror and trauma.

There is an archetypal reality of a feminine expression of rage that is rooted in empathic connection and has the power to usher in much needed transformation in service to both an individual and collective individuation process. This presentation will look at rage as a vehicle of creative energy that ushers us across the threshold of growth and transformation.

December 5th, 2018
with
​Sandy Salzillo, MA, LMHC

Picture
Link to watch on Amazon.com

​https://www.amazon.com/Piano-Holly-Hunter/dp/B00DNO2LFC

​“This is not my voice you hear, but the voice of my mind”

 So begins our introduction to Ada, the protagonist of Jane Campion’s masterpiece, The Piano. Images of the lush coast of 1850’s New Zealand provide the backdrop for a story loaded with symbolic references of passion, possession and the emergence of desire. Ada and her daughter Flora are left on the shore along with their belongings and her piano. How will they transverse this foreign terrain without any orientation other than her piano which stands between the ocean and the sand?

In a film which forces the viewer to hold the tension between explosive silence and sensual beauty, Ada’s survival is dependent on her will, a will that she herself is terrified of. What has been taken from Ada to fuel a fire of such inner rage? How does the haunting soundtrack of her piano speak to her traumas and secrets? Is her form of expression also the form of her undoing?

This lecture will discuss the process of rage as a vehicle that drives self-will, a will that without restraints, has a power of deep self-destruction as well as regeneration. Exploring the creative process and its ability to elicit emotion in others and the redemptive masculine are also an integral aspect of this discourse. Central to this discussion is the relationship Jane Campion has with her artmaking as author and director of this story / film as her personal experiences unconsciously and consciously weave through the archetypal lens of psyche.

January 2nd, 2019
with 
​Demaris Wehr, Ph.D.

Picture
Link to watch on Amazon.com

​https://www.amazon.com/RBG-Ruth-Bader-Ginsburg/dp/B07CT9Q5C6?crid=2MIS8SF965QBP&keywords=rbg+documentary&qid=1540728948&s=STRING%28nav-sa-amazon-instant-video%29&sprefix=RBG%2Cinstant-video%2C140&sr=1-1&ref=sr_1_1

​While we often equate rage and anger with unhinged volatility, this documentary shows us the quiet, firm, determined unswerving way Ruth Bader Ginsburg expressed anger. It also illustrates the changes that take place as we grow into elders, which RBG definitely is, giving us less energy for volatility and more focus and strength to move forward.

This documentary film shows Ruth Bader Ginsburg through her younger days until now. As Ruth plays herself in various clips, we see her will and her quiet, powerful determination to change the legal underpinnings of injustice. We see the persistence and strengthening of these qualities as she faces the challenges of aging, such as bereavement and illness. At 85, she is still a Supreme Court Justice. How does she do it?

RBG is the embodiment of the archetype of the Wise Old Woman, an Elder now, in a society (ours) that devalues both. She is carried by the archetypal energy of the Feminine that she represents, in one of its re-emerging forms. She—the archetype, and Ruth— is a force to contend with; a re-emerging form of feminine wisdom and strength to guide us through turbulent times.

February 6th, 2019
with
​Elizabeth Nelson, Ph.D.

Picture
Link to watch on Amazon:
​https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Dragon-Tattoo-Daniel-Craig/dp/B007FH9GT2?keywords=The+Girl+with+the+Dragon+Tattoo&qid=1540729000&s=STRING%28nav-sa-amazon-instant-video%29&sr=1-1&ref=sr_1_1

March 6th, 2019
with 
​Susan Rowland, Ph.D.

Picture
Link to watch on Amazon:
​https://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Narnia-Lion-Witch-Wardrobe/dp/B00HMC4NHK?crid=VMWV8D4QOUM8&keywords=the+lion+the+witch+and+the+wardrobe+prime+video&qid=1540729054&s=STRING%28nav-sa-amazon-instant-video%29&sprefix=The+Lion+the+wit%2Cinstant-video%2C146&sr=1-1&ref=sr_1_1

The White Witch in the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe dir. Andrew Adamson (2005)

While in the book by C. S. Lewis, there is an overt attempt to portray Aslan’s adversary, the White Witch, as a demonic mother as well as negative anima, the film offers a chance to open up these questions apart from Lewis’s particular struggles over sexuality and the feminine. As the forces of winter and potential childkiller, the White Witch is a formidable foe. Played by Tilda Swinton, the actress brings more complex and creative ideas of the anima and the feminine into play. ​

April 10th, 2019
with 
​Chris Peknic, LCSW, MSW

Picture

Link to watch on Amazon:
​https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Force-Awakens-Theatrical/dp/B019G7X7QG?crid=32XOD0NAEVESE&keywords=star+wars+the+force+awakens&qid=1540729098&s=STRING%28nav-sa-amazon-instant-video%29&sprefix=Star+Wars+The+For%2Cinstant-video%2C140&sr=1-1&ref=sr_1_1

“The Force Awakens” or “The Feminine Force Awakens” is now in the collective. Finally, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” now has a face of a woman. Film has been described as the modern setting of the prehistoric fire circle. In the dark, listening to a myth unfold, watching the archetypal characters on a lit screen; a good film, driven by myth, can spark the flame within.

This movie follows a character named Rey, a highly Force-sensitive scavenger who was abandoned as a child on the desert planet Jakku and awaits her family's return. Rey's background as a scavenger portrays her as the ultimate outsider and the ultimate disenfranchised person. Scattered about the sandy junkyard are wreckages of old wars, remnants of many battles driven by the masculine, of an age that needs to change. This is the world we’ve always known. Now it is time for new heroines to guide us through the wreckage. Through her journey, Rey is brave, optimistic, and maintains fierce loyalty to her friends.

The work of the mythologist Joseph Campbell, and his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, directly influenced George Lucas and what drove him to create the "modern myth" of Star Wars. The natural flow of energy known as the Force originates from the concept “chi”, the all-pervading vital energy of the universe.
In this film review, we will explore Rey’s calling to her inner force and how it relates to the collective today.

Featured Faculty

Chris Peknic, LCSW, MSW
Elizabeth Nelson, Ph.D.
Susan Rowland, Ph.D.
Sandy Salzillo LMHC, MA
Loralee Scott, MFA
Demaris Wehr, Ph.D.

Support

Contact:
​E-mail:  seeingredconference@gmail.com
Phone:   (508) 427-7526
​4 Broadway Avenue Ext.
Unit 3A
Mystic, CT 06355

© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Certificate Course!
    • The Epoch Makers Course >
      • The Epoch Makers Recorded Sessions
  • Webinar Series
    • Seeing Red at the Movies III >
      • A Sacred Rage Recordings
    • Friendships of Women II
    • Friendships of Women II - Recordings
    • The Friendships of Women
    • The Friendships of Women Recordings
    • Seeing Red at the Movies!
    • Seeing Red at the Movies II
    • Seeing Red at the Movies II Recordings
  • Complimentary Webinar Library
    • Psyche, Soma and Identity
  • A Hope Fiercely Held Women's Day Panel
  • Contact
  • Community
  • Product